Sunday, January 18, 2009

Jewdyssee - The return of Yiddish cabaret!

There's definitely something in the air. Jewish music, everything from klezmer to cantorial, is getting caught up, chopped up, and whipped up into a frenzy in dance clubs around the world by adventerous DJ's and musicians who love the crazy funkiness of many traditional Jewish musical forms. I wrote recently (here and here) about the British klezmer / house DJ mashup "Ghettoplotz" and many times (including here and here) about the Canadian klezmer accordion player & hip hop DJ Socalled. Not to mention Diwon and Erran Baron Cohen. Today's addition to the fray is Germany's Jewdyssee, who draw on the over-the-top visual theatrics of Yiddish cabaret as the focus for there genre-bending music excursions.

"Jewdyssee is currently a music project. What we are aiming to achieve through our music is the celebration of Jewish music and culture that shows this culture is alive, vibrant and evolving.

The name Jewdyssee comes from the word Odyssey that describes a journey – a journey to consciousness. The name reflects our musical journey exploring the old Yiddish songs and bringing them into a current day musical context.

Jewdyssee is not about making a political or religious statement. We just want to show that our culture not only has a tragic history, but that there is a great wealth of music and culture to be celebrated and that this culture is a current part of our lives that we want to express and share."

Update: Ok, so I forgot to mention that Jewdyssee will be playing the upcoming Jewlicious Festival at the end of February - early March in the LA / Long Beach area. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, check it out.

About Teruah-JewishMusic

I'm a Conservative Jew living in a Christian farm town in Michigan, USA. For me, Jewish music used to be Adon Olam, Hava Nagila, and Fiddler on the Roof. I started getting a clue a few years ago. Jewish music is Klezmer dances, Sephardic ballads and Chassidic niggun. It's thousand year old hymns, three hundred year old Shabbat table songs and 60 year old partisan resistance songs. It's contemporary hip-hop, punk rock, electronica, jazz, and chamber music. In addition to loving its musical and spiritual qualities, Jewish music helps me connect my family with a much broader and diverse Jewish culture than is available locally. The Teruah blog helps me document my exploration and share it with others. Why the name Teruah? Teruah is a call on the shofar on Rosh Hashanna.